{"id":3293,"date":"2021-05-19T19:22:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T19:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=3293"},"modified":"2021-05-19T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T19:22:07","slug":"a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/19\/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"A Swim in a Pond in the Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Dipping My Toes In <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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George Saunders\u2019s new book lets readers experience Russian literature as if participating in a lively classroom discussion.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Ali Kjergaard<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I can picture that swim: overcast skies, the old floating dock, and gray waters. Idyllic sunny days are hard to come by way up north in Minnesota, so you swim no matter what the weather. The air isn\u2019t cold though, it\u2019s sticky in preparation for the rain. As the drop begins to fall the water is strangely warm against the brisk raindrops; I\u2019m warm and a little shivery all at the same time\u2014an odd combination. Clumsy half-hearted strokes cut through choppy waters, and in the middle of the lake amid the sprinkling rain and warm air I want to shout for the sheer pleasure of it all. These swims allow us to experience water in all its forms\u2014raining down on me, supporting my weight as I swim, and filling the air with humidity. A muggy, rainy day isn\u2019t the usual swimming weather. Typically we want bright sunshine and cloudless skies, but perhaps we ought to do more swims in the rain.<\/p>

It\u2019s little wonder that I enjoyed A Swim in the Pond in the Rain<\/em>. The title of the book mirrors the experience of reading it: it\u2019s a normal, straightforward collection of short stories. It\u2019s a curious idea for a book, essentially sitting in on a class going through Russian short stories and reflecting on them. The way George Saunders weaves in observations and comments from his students only adds to that feeling of sitting in on a discussion. I found myself turning my head between Saunders\u2019s thoughts on the works and the thoughts of students, and then thinking through my own thoughts on the stories. As a college student I was always looking for the seat far enough away to avoid the first line of questioning, but still close enough to soak in every word. Saunders gives the reader that ideal seat in his classroom. The reader is invited to take a front seat in the classroom without the anxiety of getting called on or having to speak up in the discussion.<\/p>

I\u2019m still relatively new to Russian literature, and I dragged my feet into it, quite frankly. The more people told me I\u2019d love it, the more I hesitated. \u201cDickens and Jane Austen, I\u2019ll stick with them,\u201d I thought to myself. It wasn\u2019t until a friend thrust Dr. Zhivago<\/em> into my hands and said, \u201cRead this,\u201d that I dove into the beauty of Russian literature. You don\u2019t have to be a connoisseur of War and Peace<\/em> or The<\/em> Brothers Karamazov <\/em>to enjoy Saunders\u2019s analysis of the short stories. That\u2019s the joy of short stories: they\u2019re short. Saunders includes stories from Chekhov and Tolstoy as well as Gogol and Turgenev, among others. You\u2019re reading the very best Russian literature has to offer.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Being a reader keeps us curious in the rest of our life, knowing that we should always be wondering about the full picture.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The book includes the full text of each story, along with Saunders\u2019s analysis and commentary on it.\u00a0 For the first short story, \u201cIn the Cart,\u201d Saunders intersperses his analysis with the text of the story to break the story down one page at a time. The process feels painstakingly drawn out. As a speedier reader I thought about skipping the analysis and just reading the story in its entirety. Don\u2019t do that! It sets the book\u2019s tone. Remember, this is a class; we as the readers must do a bit of work.<\/p>

I walked away from the book knowing that the pacing of a good short story is hard to capture. More than with any other writing medium, the writer is forced to hold a reader\u2019s attention. Every line must be an intriguing invitation to keep reading, while keeping the plot bustling along. I hadn\u2019t thought of the importance of each sentence (and my own subconscious analysis) until Saunders pointed this out. He breaks down each story not just by plot but by what we see the writer doing (or not doing). He calls attention to our instincts as readers: Why do we process stories the way we do? What questions is our subconscious asking itself as we read these stories? Saunders takes us into some of the characters\u2019 thoughts and feelings, and he reminds us that being a reader is a privilege. The author is choosing to let us in on the world of his characters, and as we get to see the full depth of a character\u2019s thoughts, we can grow in our sympathy for the character. Perhaps it\u2019s just a slight intimation of how it is when God views us, seeing a whole person with all their thoughts and feelings. When we gain this perspective, we feel more willing to extend grace. We find ourselves caring for a character we once disliked. Being a reader keeps us curious in the rest of our life, knowing that we should always be wondering about the full picture.<\/p>

Saunders recognizes that his readers aren\u2019t a bunch of kids auditing a class. He respects the reader enough to know that some of us have writing aspirations, just as most of his students have. Aspiring writers reading this book will feel at once relieved and discouraged. He\u2019s frank about the clumsiness we see in some of the included stories, but explains that it\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing: \u201cArt may be clumsy if only it moves us.\u201d He offers encouragement that our best voices might be messier than we want them to be. The writing process isn\u2019t a strict procedure, and there isn\u2019t a ten-step method to achieving beauty in a work. There is no precise way to achieve beauty and emotion in our writing. Writing is an instinct we follow, not unlike being a reader. We improve by sitting with our words, working and reworking those words. As Saunders says, we must \u201cenergetically mess with it\u201d\u2014a process both fun and exhausting.<\/p>

Since I was a child, I have tried to write a novel, always varying in genres (my first attempt was at age nine, a fantasy that was essentially Lord of the Rings<\/em> with a female Aragorn). For years I filled up notebook after notebook only to cast it aside in frustration. Why could I only get out a few really good chapters before I\u2019d peter out on the plot? As it turns out, the short essay form is where I am most comfortable. I still long to take up a space in the world of novels, but they don\u2019t come as naturally to me as essays. Even in essay form, what I begin with is rarely what I\u2019ll end with. What was swirling in my head might come out entirely different once I\u2019m reading the words on paper. But Saunders reminds us that beauty in all its forms is still a gift. \u201cIt might not be the type of beauty we\u2019ve always dreamed of making. But we have to take whatever beauty we can get, however we can get it.\u201d<\/p>

Just as we experience water in different forms in our proverbial \u201crainy, humid swim,\u201d such is the reader’s experience throughout this book. Saunders\u2019s quirky, humorous analogies offer the surprising coolness of the raindrops, his analysis of our thoughts calls our attention to an atmosphere we weren\u2019t aware existed but has always been there\u2014much like the muggy air\u2014and his words of reassurance to aspiring writers allow us to not just merely dip our toes in, but to jump into our writing wholeheartedly so that we may delight in our works, in whatever form they end.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ali Kjergaard<\/strong> currently lives in Washington, D.C. where she works as a staffer on Capitol Hill. You can follow her miscellaneous musings on Twitter @AlisonKjergaard.<\/em><\/p>

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A Swim in a Pond in the Rain <\/em><\/strong>was published by Random House on January 12, 2021. You can purchase a copy on their website here<\/a>. <\/em>
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George Saunders\u2019s new book lets readers experience Russian literature as if participating in a lively classroom discussion. 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